Following years of acrimony and protests from the Rolestown St Margaret's Action Group in relation to the Thornton Hall project, the Sunday Tribune has learned that the prison service has in recent days offered to meet residents.

The prisons body is also set to begin issuing a series of newsletters to residents within the next fortnight.

A Prison Service spokesman said, "The purpose of such meetings is to inform in relation to the current status of the planned development and to listen to any views expressed by members of the community."

The statutory public consultation procedure relating to the super prison development, as set out in the 2007 Prisons Act, is due to commence within the next four to five weeks.

The prison service is currently in negotiations with the preferred tenderer with a view to signing a contract early next year and it is expected that the prison will open within three years of the start of construction.

The spokesman added, "The service will provide more detailed information on the various issues through a series of newsletters, the first of which will issue with the next two weeks. We intend to ensure as far as possible that the development of the proposed Thornton Hall prison will entail the least disruption possible to the local community."

The Prison Service has also told the Sunday Tribune it intends to publish comprehensive details encompassing environmental aspects of the project and a mechanism for formally seeking submissions in relation to the development plans.

Meanwhile, Teresa McDonnell of the Rolestown St Margaret's Action Group said they had been requesting such a meeting with the prison service for two-and-ahalf years. "We are pleased that a meeting is being facilitated now but we don't know what to expect from it. If the consultation was going to be genuine, maybe we would have been involved at an earlier stage. We are wondering if this is just a formality in the process, " she said this weekend.

However, McDonnell added that the group was "keeping an open mind" ahead of the meeting. "We would like to think that our opinions matter and will be taken on board at the meeting, " she added.